The Bees - Octopus (Virgin)
3/5
By: Michael Cragg
Hailing from the Isle of Wight, The Bees care little for rock 'n roll cliché. There are no tales of trendy hangouts full to the brim with models, or debauched nights out with film star fans. One look at them dismisses any reliance on image, a noble gesture in a music world saturated with television channels and magazine front covers. What they do focus on is treading their musical path, a journey that incorporates touches of 60's and 70's rock, taking in everything from ska to soul, from The Beatles to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
'Octopus' is the follow-up to their 2004 major label release, 'Free The Bees', an album that built on their burgeoning fan base following their Mercury-nominated debut, 'Sunshine Hit Me'. Whilst those two albums were infused with a joyful nostalgia, a kind of musical kaleidoscope of influences, 'Octopus' settles firmly on 60's rock and soul, with (a not always welcome) dash of psychedelica. On the whole the burden of influence is avoided by the quality of the songs; 'Listening Man' is a gorgeous horn-inflected slice of soul, whilst the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-esque 'Love In The Harbour' imagines the Isle Of Wight as a long lost state in the American mid-west.
On occasion, however, the musical cherry-picking gets too much and the band fail to transcend their influences. First single 'Who Cares What The Question Is?' starts out with a blues heavy riff before mutating into a cloying Beatles pastiche, complete with thumping piano and nonsense lyrics. The effect is not so much a loving homage but an almost cynical and joyless exercise in musical robbery. Album closer, 'End Of The Street', sees the band try to inject some humour with silly sound effects but the result is a song verging on kooky, and in no way is that a good thing.
Three albums in and The Bees have yet to find their own sound or create their signature song. On occasion they are able to add their own twist and come up with something interesting - the dubby 'Left Foot Stepdown' for example - but on the whole they remain overshadowed by their lofty musical influences.
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